Gobackpacking.com – Book Review for Five Weeks in the Amazon

As I am writing this post, I am close enough to ride a bicycle to Angkor Wat Temple, in Siem Reap Colombia.

But this story began last year when I flew to Bogota Colombia to finish writing Five Weeks in the Amazon. After a month I decided Medellin was going to be my next destination. I wasn’t sure where I was going to stay, but I had been in contact with David Lee, a professional travel blogger who happened to live in Medellin. Not only that, but he wrote the Medellin Travel Guide. 

Originally I contacted him to pitch a guest post idea for his website gobackpacking.com, and after a few emails, I asked him where I could find a cheap place to live for a month. He said his roommate was moving out in 4 days and he had a room available in 4 days. I think it was about $200 for a furnished private room, and it just happened to be directly next to the best skate park in town.

I left Medellin and flew to the Caribbean Coast to a town called Taganga. There was only one problem, when I checked into my hostel and opened my backpack, my computer had been stolen. I called Dave to see if I’d left it in his apartment, but it wasn’t there. It didn’t stop me from writing, it delayed the editing process, but it gave me the chance to write some fun short stories by hand. One of my favorites is, With love, the bar staff…

Dave was one of the first people that I sent a review copy of my book, He posted a personal review of my book on gobackpacking.com, and although he didn’t like the original idea I pitched to him about the time I was in South Africa and swam with Great White Sharks.

But he liked my book, which is much better story anyhow!